Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

As a community of artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and scholars whose careers will be spent creating intellectual property, we encourage our entire community to respect the property of others. Downloading anything onto your machine from untrustworthy P2P (peer-to-peer) sources or websites not only exposes you to viruses, worms, and spyware, but often violates the copyright laws and can lead to suspension of network privileges, or to lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), or the Business Software Alliance (BSA). Please remember that theft is a crime, and that nothing in cyberspace is truly anonymous.

Copyright protections are created when words are put on paper, transmitted via email, when music is recorded, software is written, or when an image is created. Once done, the work is protected by copyright—no formal copyright registration or seal is required for copyright protection to be in effect. If someone else wants to use the work, they must get permission from its creator.

Copyrighted material includes almost all forms of original expression fixed in tangible medium even if no formal copyright notice is filed or attached. However, you cannot copyright any idea, process, system, method of operation, concept or principle, regardless of the form in which it is described.

Copyright infringement is any reproduction (download), display, distribution (upload), creation of derivative works, or public performance of copyrighted work without permission of the copyright owner.

Federal copyright law and college policy prohibit the copying and/or distribution of copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright owner. Copyrighted materials include but are not limited to text, graphics, art, photographs, music, film, and software.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) software such as BitTorrent that is often used to share music, movies and other media may lead to violation of copyright laws. Most P2P software automatically shares anything that you download by default—so if you downloaded the latest Hollywood blockbuster to watch it, you would also be helping to distribute an illegal copy to others by sharing the contents of your machine with the world.

If you use any P2P software for legitimate purposes, as a security precaution, you should disable its file sharing component. There is an IU website with details on disabling file-sharing for most P2P software.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Purchase College receives DMCA Copyright Infringement Notices alleging that computer(s) registered to Purchase College IP addresses are allegedly illegally infringing on copyrighted materials belonging to others. Infringement of copyright is a violation of Federal law, and the violator is subject to both substantial fines and civil damages.

Under the DMCA, as an Internet Service Provider (ISP), the college is obligated to expeditiously remove or disable the allegedly infringing material and notify the subscriber of its actions in what is referred to as “notice and take down procedure.” The Purchase College DMCA infringement procedure is as follows:

RIAA, MPAA and various agents report alleged copyright infringements to the college’s named DMCA agent, CTS.

CTS identifies the computer, the room, and the owner of the computer, and records the DMCA case number, name, other information in a DMCA incident report ticket.

CTS places the computer in question into a restricted network

The computer owner’s name is forwarded to the vice president for student affairs and to the Office of Community Standards in the form of a DMCA Violation Letter that includes the specific information contained in the Violation Notice received by the college.

Student Affairs refers student to the Office of Community Standards for possible disciplinary action.

VP Student Affairs or the Office of Community Standards will notify CTS if/when the individual’s computer should be removed from the restricted network once the Office of Community Standards has completed its process.

Under the DMCA, the college is obligated to inform you of certain requirements of that Act. You have the right under the Act to send a counter notice that you are not in violation or that the violation has ceased. That notice must be in the form required by the Act, and you are advised to seek legal counsel at your expense for appropriate advice on the form of any counter-notice. The specific statutory language is as follows: (17 USC 512(g)(3)): Contents of Counter-Notification: To be effective under this subsection, a counter notification must be a written communication provided to the service provider’s designated agent that includes substantially the following:

The above is provided for your information only, not as advice, nor is it an attempt at stating the law or your responsibility. You should review the entire Act with your attorney.

College Computer Network Users: if you lose access due to an alleged violation

If you receive an official notice from the college of an alleged copyright violation and have had your network access restricted, please contact the Office of Student Affairs to find out how you can have your network access restored: